A good-looking garden can win prizes. This year’s British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) Award has been won jointly: by Suffolk-based garden designer and a group of contractors from Colchester. It is unusual that two sets of people have won the award, though it shows that collaborations between gardeners and builders can produce great results.

Stunning with stone

The garden designer is Jason Lock, whilst the builders and contractors are from the team Oak View Landscapes. They worked together to create a dynamic outdoor space. The garden they worked on was part of a 17th century house in Great Sampford and it required great landscaping skill to preserve original features as well as updating the overall appearance.

Their winning garden included a pond surrounded by coping stones and a border to give it a more attractive appearance. A herbaceous edge was added and also a paved terrace to make it more accessible.

Make your garden worthy of awards too

But what can we learn from the award winners? Awards serve as great opportunity to take some inspiration and get going with your own garden projects! What appears to be a prominent feature of the design is stone – a classic material which can fulfil multiple functions. This year has seen an increased interest in elegant, refined outdoor spaces, which stone can achieve. Additional landscaping features such as capping or coping allow for a fine finish and were used significantly by the award winners.

London Stone are specialist providers of materials to get you going with your project. . Their materials are ethically-sourced and of optimum quality including popular Indian sandstone, limestone and granite. For more information you can visit their website directly at – www.londonstone.co.uk